- This telecast of George Balanchine's famous production was broadcast only four years after it was premiered by the New York City Ballet.
- This is basically the same production as the 1993 film version with Macaulay Culkin as the Nutcracker, but there is one difference. In the spot where the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier dance their Act II Pas de Deux, a Pas de Six is performed,although the music is presumably the same. (The Pas de Deux was not reinstated until Balanchine revised his production years later.) Clara and the Nutcracker Prince are played by children, just as in the 1993 film, in which Clara is called Marie. The website balanchine.org has more detailed information on this Playhouse 90 version of the ballet, as does the book "Nutcracker Nation". The Playhouse 90 version is not available on DVD and has not been telecast in more than fifty years; it can only be seen at museum screenings. This is especially a pity, because the Playhouse 90 version is the only one in which George Balanchine himself plays Drosselmeyer.
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